Fifty Pushups Miss ☑️

Ch11 Blunders On The First Day

Alarm. Damn you alarm.
Oh wait. Damn you Killer.

It was indeed a peaceful sleep. I woke up fresh, after like what.. a month?

I got ready in a hurry and reached the ground. He wasn't there. How's it possible? I looked around.

I saw someone at the bars at far end of the ground.
He was doing pull-ups.. with.. one hand? Oh my god. I couldn't believe anyone could do that.

That has to be Killer. I don't think anyone else will be awake at this time doing such a thing.

I was startled by a familiar voice that came from behind me. "Stretching time over."
I turned back to make sure if it was him.
Yes it's him. Killer is standing here. Then who's there at the bars?

"I reached on time, before you!" I tried to win the argument he started.

"Who were you waiting for then?"
"I.. I was thinking about... something else" it will be so stupid to tell him that I was imagining someone else to be him.

"That means you lost your focus."
"Yes" the word casually came out of my mind. But in the same moment, I realised what had I done. "No, I mean I.." What to do!! He understands if I lie.

"You lost your focus. You have no explanation. What do you earn?" Lifting one eyebrow he waits for my reply.

"A punishment?"
"You're learning. Atleast your brain is doing something productive ."

Rude. Again.
How dare... Control Jane...
Crunches are not what you should start the day with. Stay shut.
I clenched my jaw to suppress an answer.

"You want to say something?"
"No sir"

"Very well. There are lots of punishments to decide from. I need some time. Here's what we do. You go finish the first round. Till then I'll decide what to be done with you."

Okay.. where's the catch??

"But remember.." Ah, there it is. Killer can't make it easy for me, can he?

"From now onwards, if your timing of completing first round in the morning is more than the previous day's, then you run the next rounds with weights tied to your feet."

"That means 5 kgs plus those on my feet?"

"Yes."
I suddenly felt a shawl of fear covering me. As an instict I asked back "What's my yesterday's timing?"

"That's for me to know. All you have to do is run your first round daily with all the strength you have. That's the only chance I'll give you throughout the day."

Now that's gonna hurt.
But in a way it will help me improve my timings.
Alright then.

I got ready for tough times. He blew the whistle and I ran for my life, again.
I came and collapsed at his feet.

Breathing hard I looked up to check whether I made it or not.
"Your today's timing is exactly same as yesterday. That means there's no improvement. That means you should..."

I knew where he was heading. I had to stop him right there.
"Sir. Last time sir. It won't be repeated again. Just consider today to be the first day, please."
He looked down at me displeased.

"Hardly an hour into this day, and you're already begging me."
After taking a five second pause he said the word I wanted to hear so badly.

"Fine."

Oh thank Godness.
"Not with the weights. But you will run another round. Try not to take forever. Now get up."

Such mercy.
Bloody Killer!

I ran another round, thankfully without any weight, and reached the starting point.

There he was. Waiting for me to arrive. I stood in front of him and waited for his evil plan.

"You know how to do a plank?"
I've seen it in a recent movie, and I heard it was not a difficult thing to do.

"Yes sir."
"Good. So here's your punishment. You'll get in the plank position on my mark and count till 10 and then get back to the rest position. I'll make you do this multiple times."

Where is the catch in this. He's punishing me to lose my focus. This doesn't make any sense.

"Your punishment is to count silently, the number of times I make you do this. And tell me in the end. I should not hear your numbers. I only want to listen to the counts from one to ten."

Gotcha. That's not so difficult.
I nodded.

He gave that look I hate and blew the whistle and I got into the position.

I started counting from one, and I realised it's difficult to maintain balance this way. I almost lost my count, but somehow finished it and fell on the ground.

Now I understood the whole point. He knows it's difficult to be in plank.
On top of it, he's making my mind workout too by doing two counts simultaneously.

My goodness, he's damn good at playing with minds.

Suddenly I heard the whistle blow again and the whole scene repeated.

I was doing okay till 12. After that my hands and feet started to feel the weight of my body, which made me lose the count going on in my mind.

He asked me to get up.
I was sweating. Not just because of the tiring workout, but also because I was about to fail in my focus-learning punishment.

"How many?" His question was stern and clear.
I wasn't sure if the answer was 15 or 16.
I played with my luck and answered in a weak tone "15, sir." Hoping it to be correct, I looked at him.

His expression changed into utter disguise "how pathetic can you be? You fail in your punishments!"

I looked down knowing well, that a big insulting lecture was about to start. I was starting to feel useless.

"Look up! "
I looked into his eyes, with all the shame I was feeling.

"I will give you another chance. And this time you'll count till 20 in each set. And if you lose your attention again, I'll make sure you pay the price."
"Yes sir."

I was about to start crying.
But I decided to focus on more important thing.
He has given me a straight warning. Nothing is more important than that right now, not even the fact that how worthless I am.

He blew the whistle and the punishment restarted.
It was more difficult to keep the counts due to complicated numbers and more exhaustion. But I managed to keep my brain working.

"How many" He asked me while I was lying panting on the ground. "23, Sir."
"Alright."

Though 'Alright' , in no dictionary, is a word of appreciation, but Killer not cursing me, and saying 'Alright' instead is a good sign.
I felt a little better.

Then he said something that made sense, and almost cleared the tears in my eyes.

"Remember, there will be times when you'll feel that you are no good. And while training with me, all my statements will mean this too. But that doesn't mean you stop proving me wrong. The day you accept your own defeat, is the day I get defeated too. And lady I don't lose too easily. So you dare not let that happen."

Thank God I wasn't looking towards him, else he would have seen the smile his words brought on my lips.
"Won't let you down, sir."

I got up having gained some strength.
He nodded in approval and pointed at me- "Then keep those stupid tears out of my sight for future. My boys cry only when I break their bones, not when I make them use their little brains."

Shit. He saw that.
"Yes sir."

He started going away. I didn't know where to go hide my face.
Just then I heard him saying "Stop mumbling. Come to mess. You have a surprise waiting for you."